by K. T. Hanna
So it wasn’t what she’d done the last time.
Merlin went flying past her head, just missing her, and smashed back first into a pillar to her left. The crunch of breaking bones set her teeth on edge, and she couldn’t help but glance back, cringing when she realized he’d been impaled again.
But even as she watched, Merlin reached up and yanked the ice spear from the soft tissue at the front of his shoulder. An HoT hit him, and he yanked the offending item out of the wound and dropped down from the pillar to land slightly clumsily on the ground. Blood spattered his lips as he did so, and he laughed. “Don’t look so shocked, Mur. I’ve been impaled far worse than that.” He grinned at her with blood still on his lips and loosed his bow.
It had only taken a couple of seconds, but it was enough time for Murmur’s laugh to die in her throat as James tossed a voice circle at her. It was the only way she could think of to describe the purple and black ball of moving smoke that he threw her way.
She wouldn’t have been able to dive out of the way if Snowy hadn’t yanked her robe with his teeth and pulled her unceremoniously onto her butt. It narrowly missed her, and she could feel the nothingness emanating from it as it passed too close for comfort.
Standing up, she gathered her focus, completely aware of Snowy by her side with his unwavering support.
Even as James let out the warning howl again and his wave of Rampaging Anger almost took out Karn and Dansyn, Murmur cringed; the Discordant Note hadn’t covered everyone this time. She watched them roll away from the attack their hit points dropping even further. That was their second hit, and now they were at forty percent more damage with every strike. If she couldn’t solve this soon, the raid wasn’t going to last long enough to rescue him anyway. And she got the distinct feeling that if they wiped, they wouldn’t get back in without gathering the keys again.
Mind Healing. It was the only course of action she could take. And if it didn’t work, she’d need to adjust it so it did.
Mind Healing
Cast: Instant – 5-minute recast
Type: Restorative
Duration: 20 seconds or 75% of the caster’s level, whichever is greater.
Effect: You may create and insert a vision for the target to experience—it’s best to have some of these pre-prepared. This will not cause any damage but instead assist in soothing a tormented mind. Use with caution and be aware that people who could benefit from this skill might be closer than you realize.
What could she send to him that would soothe his mind? What could she craft in image form that might help him realize his situation and help him take control? The only thing she was glad of right then was that her normal spell rotation was ingrained in her mind. She could execute her debuffs all while contemplating other things. Time wasn’t on her side. Even as the thoughts rushed through her head, Snowy came and pushed his snout into her hand, wuffing slightly and letting his cold, wet nose touch her skin at the same time.
She laughed, and her head cleared as the stress reduced and allowed her to be more analytical. Glancing up, she noted the way the sky was warped, only visible through the magic shielding that stopped its prisoners from escaping. Probably also kept them alive and dry while under water.
Right. She didn’t know James well, but something she guessed he wanted to do above all else was complete the tasks he’d been given. And one of them had been to find out all the information on the headgear she had.
That he’d get that promotion, that raise. Very self-serving aims, but she couldn’t judge him. Everyone had their own motivations and technically owed no one else anything.
She set about her business as quickly and thoroughly as she could, crafting the image of him completing his job well, of him being a good worker and receiving praise from his boss, wasn’t difficult. She’d met James once, and she’d seen, even then, that he wanted to prove he was right. Brushing his mind in this state was a painful chore but one she had to complete. Because setting him in front of a boss he’d never worked with would tarnish the credibility of her vision. It would harm him instead of hurt him, and that was the last thing she wanted.
A five-minute recast meant she couldn’t fuck this up. Or she totally could, but she refused to do so.
Just as she was about to dive in, Snowy yanked her down with the sheer power of his jaw. Murmur fell backward awkwardly, stumbling as she went, and narrowly avoiding another of those sweet little black holes of doom James sent her way. And this time, this time he was watching her with a smirk just visible outside of his hood. And she could see the pipe dripping bodily fluids all down his back as he turned to aim at Masha next.
Murmur scowled and hurried herself up. Casting her net out, it allowed her to subvert some of the deeper thoughts that weren’t intruding on the current moment from James’s mind. Like fishing the top of the pool with a net to gather leaves. Promotions, happy times, memories that were fragmented in there with the nature of the nightmare he was currently living through in this damned game.
A promotion. He’d received it maybe a year or two ago. The progress of time inside a memory was iffy to work with. She only hoped that when she pulled away from trying to read into his mind, she didn’t damage him or herself in the process. Bit late to think about that now, though.
Taking a deep breath, she withdrew, but left, at the very forefront of his thinking, the image of happiness, of pride, of how well he’d done and how hard he’d work and the distinct sense of self that came with it.
The effect was instantaneous.
Jamesnegon stopped in his tracks, pausing for a moment, his shoulders rigid like he was fighting something off. He looked up to the sky, causing the hood to fall back from his face, and in that moment, Murmur saw his eyes had cleared, but there were still pinches of pain evident in his expression.
And then he screamed. Murmur wasn’t so sure that was a good thing.
Snowy barked next to her, and she knew even the wolf sounded concerned. She stumbled back and away, out of the reach of James’s arms just in case, and perhaps his spells as well. As the scream lessened in intensity, it grew in emotion until it became a full-on sobbing fit as he looked down finally and put his head in his hands.
“Hold your fire!” Devlish yelled. Murmur wondered how long he’d wanted to say that for.
Another roar echoed from somewhere deeper in the prison, and Murmur realized she’d probably made the actual prison boss really damn angry.
James looked up, blinking his eyes, and the form in front of them all slowly reverted to elven, through all the phases he must have passed through to get to the large elf mix he’d been. She had to remember he probably didn’t know her actual character, and she could hide her name from him fairly easily. Although the rest of Fable couldn’t, and it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
His eyes rested on her, and he cocked his head to one side, wincing in pain. He reached around the back of his neck and hesitated. Havoc moved faster than she did.
“Here. I’ll help.” Havoc directed Leeroy to take care of the strange pipe that fed whatever it was into James’s system. Murmur watched, her vision clouding as she saw the relief and coming down from pain reflected in the man’s eyes. Behind her there was grumbling. Irritation that they’d been denied an actual kill yet again, but Masha shushed them all, and Risk stood behind the cleric, his arms crossed in a way that told anyone complaining they’d have to deal with him.
James righted himself, his legs apparently wobbly. His body hadn’t reverted fully to elf and still had a mismatch of skin colorings peppered over his face. He appeared to be very disoriented, but he hobbled over to Murmur. She could see his hands shaking as he did so. Like he’d been withdrawn from a drug he didn’t know he was addicted to.
“You did that, didn’t you?” His voice spoke hoarsely. Maybe he’d been screaming inside that thing.
She eyed him cautiously. “If you mean I gave you a way out, yeah, I did.” She didn’t add that she’d had no clue what she was do
ing, nor that what she’d done could have gone very wrong.
“Thanks.” He looked at her, and she nodded. “But I think I need to go rest now.”
The next moment, he was gone. But Murmur had a bad feeling he wouldn’t be waking up yet.
Brainwave Focus Study Laboratory - James Hartfield’s home
Subdivision of Military Brainwave Research Institution
Somnia Online - Location unknown - First Login Terminated
Day Thirty-Two
James’s vitals appeared to be absolutely fine. In fact, better than fine. David watched them for any flicker of abnormality, but they remained there, nice and sturdy. Sort of like Staven, standing at the back of the room. Unmovable and strong at first glance.
Until all at once everything went haywire for about three seconds.
They were the longest three seconds of his life. Okay, the second longest. The first time had been when Wren stopped responding when she had her headgear on booted into the system. Still, though, as James’s heart rate began to come back down, his skin lost some of its pallor.
The doctor began to check him over, all the vitals, all the signals he could check to make sure James was fine. He stood back with a frown on his face after about five minutes. “He’s fine. Better than he was, yet I don’t see any signs of him waking back up.”
David hesitated. “Maybe it’s just a bit of lag?”
The doctor raised an eyebrow. “He could just be experiencing a minor complication due to the peculiar way he’s entered this coma. Even his brainwaves appear unaffected most of the time.”
“Most of the time?” Davenport asked as he paced the width of the rather large attic room.
“There have been occasional spikes that at least let me know he’s not like the vegetative state specimen that you have back at your lab.” The doctor wasn’t being crass or mean; he just spoke in a very clinical way.
David knew Michael was, for all intents and purposes, brain dead, but it still didn’t help to hear about it like that. “Will he wake up?”
The doctor hesitated, and then answered with a raised eyebrow. “His vitals are strong and certainly indicate a favorable recovery, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. Considering the odd cases you keep bringing me, Richard, I have to say that I do not know.” He ran a hand through his grey mane of hair. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back to your other lab and check on your other patient. Because you do pay me to do both.”
And with that, he left the room.
David watched him go, glancing at the message from his wife he’d received a good eight minutes ago. When the alarms had gone off. “Hey. He’s logged out of the game. Wren did it…”
Except didn’t that mean he should be awake now? If he wasn’t, and they didn’t have a virtual stopover set up for him, where the hell was he going to spend limbo, and where had he gone to?
Davenport sighed, walking over to where James lay, his chest rising and falling like all he was doing was sleeping. The older man had a frown on his face. “You know, his bosses and I have come to certain agreements. Part of it is to do with the way James has been behaving. Part of it with this.” He waved his hand to indicate James in his coma.
“They are fully aware that he’s been a bit crazed and obsessed about gathering data and that he might have taken some aspects into his own hands without their knowledge. They came to me a few days ago, just before this happened. They apologized for his over-zealousness and put in an order for a special project training program because of the headgear testing. You know, the ones we actually meant to make…well, they work spectacularly well for what they require.”
David patted the older man on the shoulder, trying to convey his sympathy. “Maybe they should have told him that before they told you. It all could have been avoided.”
“That’s just it.” Davenport sighed and nodded at the night nurse who came to take her shift. He motioned for David to leave with him. “They did talk to him, but he insisted he knew what he was doing, which is why they then approached me. Of course, then all this crap hit the fan, so the terms changed a bit. But overall, I just wish I knew the why of it.”
David followed the man out, wishing the same thing, but knowing that sometimes obsession was blind to facts.
James’s defeat wasn’t the triumphant victory so many of the raiders were used to, but it was still a victory, and Murmur would take them where she could. Rushing to endgame had always been her goal. If not here, then in other games. But this rush had even worn her out. Maybe it was because she was a lot more attached to this world right now, but maybe it was burnout.
Silence fell over the raid force as James practically dissolved in front of their eyes.
Maybe she was trying to cram anything else into her head that she could because every single non-Fable raider just stood there looking at her as if they expected an explanation immediately.
QUEST COMPLETION
To be rewarded at the end of dungeon, only if completed in its entirety.
Murmur suppressed a groan and knew that the cryptic quest completion message was only going to make things worse.
“You didn’t think that was strange?” Merlin asked, his voice soft as he checked over the condition of his bow.
Murmur laughed, a tinge of bitterness creeping into the sound. “To be honest? Nothing in this world is strange anymore. I could turn into a frog creature in five minutes and I’d probably just nod and think: well, that happened.” She sighed and leaned her face toward Tiachi, who’d come out of hiding at the nape of her neck and was chattering furiously.
Merlin frowned. “Bit jaded, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, but look at them.” She gestured toward the non-Fable raid members making their way over to them. Masha, Ishwa, Risk, and Karn. Their faces were grim but didn’t quite border on angry. Though they were definitely serious.
To Merlin’s credit, he just sucked in a breath and began going over his bowstring again, standing within reach enough to show his support for Murmur. She appreciated that.
“Murmur.” Masha spoke first, inclining his head. He glanced around him, looking slightly confused. He’d been like that since they left the water dungeon. “So. And I don’t mean to come of harsh, but what the fuck was all that?”
We probably should have taken that into consideration. Somnia sounded mildly irritated at herself.
You think? Murmur shot back at the world before taking a deep breath so she could deal with the other raiders. They were bound to find out a lot of this sooner rather than later, so it may as well come from her.
“Some people have been tinkering or tampering with the approved headgear. And some of those have been glitching a bit. We basically just helped someone log back out after getting stuck in a glitch.” There, that wasn’t too catastrophic was it?
The group that approached her just stood there, gaping. Perhaps she’d overdone it a bit. Maybe she should have kept it simpler.
“Wait.” Risk held up a hand and looked like he was digesting something very foul. “Are you trying to tell us that if you’ve tinkered with your headset beyond the approved design, the game can conscript you into shit like becoming an NPC of sorts?”
He`s got you there, Somnia pointed out.
Don’t sound so smug. This is about you too, Murmur snapped, but spoke out loud as sweetly as she could. “Well, obviously the game can do that, as it just did. But that’s why there are restrictions on fiddling with the headgear. They went through rigorous testing for a reason. I thought that was obvious.”
She was only marginally surprised by the looks of unease on the faces in front of her.
“Makes sense,” Ishwa said, managing to look a little disgruntled. “I think most of us in here probably need to log out and reset our headgear back to factory default.”
“Still, are you sure that’s all? It looked so…real. I mean, within the world, that is.” Karn sounded somewhat perplexed. Like there was something nagging at her about it.
“Oh.” Masha seemed to like that reasoning much more, and Murmur hadn’t even really had to lie.
“Still.” Risk glanced at Karn, a flash of his devotion to his daughter crossing his face. “Might be best to make sure we all reset our headgear once we’re through this dungeon.”
“Yeah, I think that’s probably a good idea. Speaking of which, we need to move out.” She gave a halfhearted smile and turned to face the rest of the raid. “Buff up, and check you have enough potions. We need to head out as soon as possible.”
Murmur couldn’t help the feeling of trepidation that ran through her. They’d been standing in this same area for too long. Hell, they’d fought two bosses here already. Although, granted, James wasn’t originally intended to be here, so maybe that was the reason why. Still, the path beyond narrowed; pillars turned into walls and created a much narrower walkway to take the raid down.
She wasn’t looking forward to traversing it, but they needed to get out of here, before that sense of foreboding gnawing at her gut got the best of her.
“Looks pretty narrow, doesn’t it?” She nudged Havoc.
“Very. Maybe four people across with their arms by their sides.” He seemed thoughtful. “Can’t really get a read on more than about five feet in. You sense anything?”
“Nope.” She shook her head, irritated again at the impediments placed on her using her abilities in here. Enchanter or sensing abilities appeared to have been blocked. Considering they were fighting a mutation of the system and the system knew all of their classes…It was almost like someone had been expecting them.